No, Spotify and Amazon aren’t suing songwriters

On Mar 8, 2019

Musicians, producers and songwriters are rallying against Spotify and Amazon’s plans to “sue songwriters” over increased streaming royalties. But the outrage stems from some misinformation: Spotify and Amazon aren’t technically suing songwriters — they’re trying to appeal the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision last year to increase payout rates to songwriters by 44% over the next five years, as reported by Variety.

The CRB ruling made in January of last year, which sided with the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) and the Nashville Songwriters’ Association International, was just published this February, and it opened up an opportunity for companies to appeal the decision for a 30-day window. Now, Spotify, Google,…